Cornelia Postuma or Postuma Cornelia[1] (born 78 or 77 BC) was the only daughter of Roman dictator Sulla and his fifth wife, Valeria Messalla. She was Sulla's fifth and final known child.[lower-alpha 1]

Life

Postuma was delivered some months after Sulla's death. It is uncertain whether her name, Postuma, was a praenomen or cognomen, as the usage of the name Postuma as a female praenomen is unattested in epigraphical evidence for the Roman Republic period but it would have been unusual to give a cognomen at such an early date.[2] The male-equivalent praenomen Postumus is well attested.[3] Her birth was highly significant, as it unified Sulla's family with that of her mother's.[4]

She had three surviving older half-siblings—Cornelia Silla and the twins Faustus Cornelius Sulla and Fausta Cornelia—as well as a brother who died young. Her oldest sister, Silla, had already had children by the time Postuma was born.[5]

T. F. Carney presumes that she died young since there is no further mention of her in literature; he states that a member of such a notorious household could not have failed to be mentioned somewhere if she had been old enough to marry.[4] He assumes both she and her half-brother died in congenital infection, perhaps contracted by her mother from Sulla, who himself died of infected ulcers.[6]

Cultural depictions

In Colleen McCullough's book Fortune's Favourites Postuma's mother Valeria expresses doubt that she is actually Sulla's child, believing that she was instead fathered by her lover Metrobius.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Three surviving children from her father Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix's previous marriages are known; Cornelia Silla, Faustus Cornelius Sulla and Fausta Cornelia, but another son who died young is attested to by Sulla's autobiography.

References

  1. ↑ Kajava 1995, p. 285.
  2. ↑ Kajava 1995, p. 181.
  3. ↑ Kajava 1995, p. 111.
  4. 1 2 Acta Classica. Roman life and letters. Vol. 1. A.A. Balkema. 1960. p. 74.
  5. ↑ Historical Reflections: Réflexions Historiques. History Department, University of Waterloo. 1987. p. 42.
  6. ↑ Acta Classica. Roman life and letters. T. J. Haarho. Vol. 1. A.A. Balkema. 1960. p. 75.
  7. ↑ McCullough, Colleen (2013) [1993]. Fortune's Favourites. London: Head of Zeus. ISBN 9781781857939 – via Google Books.

Bibliography

  • Kajava, Mika (1995). "Roman Female Praenomina: Studies in the Nomenclature of Roman Women". Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae. Institutum Romanum Finlandiae. ISSN 0538-2270.


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